Can Mac Mini be turned into a backup drive?

[sailortena]

Hi, I recently bought a 24" iMac 2.8 ghz. It will be replacing a Mac Mini G4 1.25 ghz with 512 ram and about 40 gig hard drive.

Can this mac mini be reconfigured to be a backup with Time Machine or should I just use it as external storage?

The mini also has bluetooth, I was thinking I could connect to it that way as well. I was thinking of networking via firewire but if the iMac only has one firewire port that might be a bit challenging.

 

[aross99]

I haven't tried this yet, but my understanding is that Time Machine can see AppleShare volumes, so you should be able to share your Mini's drive, and then use it for Time machine.

You will want to use Wired Ethernet or Airport for your networking connection. Wired Ethernet would be faster...

Just make sure you Mini doesn't go to sleep...

 

[GregE]

40GB isn't very big for a Time Machine drive. With the OS on your Mini you won't even have that much room and your iMac is probably 320GB or more. Did you plan on putting an external drive on your Mini? If so, why not just put the external drive on your iMac. Am I missing something here?

 

[IJ Reilly]

You can do this with any Mac. Start it up in Firewire Target Disk Mode and it's seen as a Firewire drive.

 

[Dimwhit]

Like GregE says, it's not very worth it to use the mini as a TM backup. Drive is too small. I'd suggest coming up with a more creative solution for the mini (like a media server or something). Or just sell it.

 

[stukdog]

Those early mac minis still get 2-300 dollars on ebay. If you're really looking for a backup solution, I'd say sell the Mac mini and either get an external hard drive or a new Time Capsule. With either of those options, you'll get a much bigger and faster drive to back up to.

 

[sailortena]

Thanks for all your imput! You are right my hard drive on this mini is only 40g and my new computer will have 500 gig, so it's no point in making it a backup drive.

I think I will take advice and prepare this Mini for sale when I get the new iMac I ordered. I figure wiping hard drive, putting it back to factory install, cleaning the cables and putting it back into original box.

Hopefully I'll get a few nibbles.